Gyatrul Rinpche made a somewhat cryptic comment about samaya once that I heard. He said "You don't even know what samaya is, let alone how to practice it." I thought to myself, "Ain't that the truth?"

All the rules surrounding samaya are not samaya. Rules. That shalt not. What about us rule-o-phobes? Can we not practice dharma? Certainly, the whole concept of samaya did not function in Shakyamuni's time. So when exactly did it enter the Buddhist pantheon? Does anyone know? Is it just a Tibetan thing? No other branches of dharma practice seem to have it. Wondering about the whole thing.

I am well aware of my idiocy. I am also very aware that you too are an idiot. Therein lies our mutuality.

Gyatrul Rinpche made a somewhat cryptic comment about samaya once that I heard. He said "You don't even know what samaya is, let alone how to practice it." I thought to myself, "Ain't that the truth?"

All the rules surrounding samaya are not samaya. Rules. That shalt not. What about us rule-o-phobes? Can we not practice dharma? Certainly, the whole concept of samaya did not function in Shakyamuni's time. So when exactly did it enter the Buddhist pantheon? Does anyone know? Is it just a Tibetan thing? No other branches of dharma practice seem to have it. Wondering about the whole thing.

Are there basic ones for practitioners that are high school freshmen that aren't so complex?

Most of what people consider samaya only comes into play when you take yoga and highest yoga tantra initiations. As mentioned previously in this thread, there is no such thing as samaya outside the context of initiations.

However, keeping any, a few, or all of the five lay precepts, and/or the commitments of refuge are a good place to start.

There are so many opinions here. Even among the lamas. The topic is not any clearer.

I would politely disagree. Did you read the references linked in the first page? What the commitments *are* is not at all uncertain. The confusion arises from the various ways in which people paraphrase, interpret or summarize the intent of the commitments. Life is considerably simpler if one discards all this elaboration and just observes them.

Then, the Licchavi Vimalakīrti spoke to the elder Śāriputra and the great disciples: “Reverends, eat of the food of the Tathāgata! It is ambrosia perfumed by the great compassion. But do not fix your minds in narrow-minded attitudes, lest you be unable to receive its gift.”

Konchog1 wrote:Samaya or pledges are things that you promise the deity to do during empowerment. Samvara or vows are things that you promise not to do. One of the common samaya is to keep your Samvara.

You promise the guru, not the deity.

/magnus

That doesn't match with my recollection...

It matches my recollection.
I have many samayas, none are to any deities.

Kye ma!
The river of continuity is marked by impermanence.
Ceaseless flowing of appearance.
Beautiful and repulsive.
The dance of life and death is a display of the vast expanse.
With gratitude the watcher and the watched pass through the barrier of duality.

There are so many opinions here. Even among the lamas. The topic is not any clearer.

That's because there isnt any single answer.
Samaya is between the teacher and their student.
It's not a universal rule book.

Kye ma!
The river of continuity is marked by impermanence.
Ceaseless flowing of appearance.
Beautiful and repulsive.
The dance of life and death is a display of the vast expanse.
With gratitude the watcher and the watched pass through the barrier of duality.

"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")

Deity's nature, your teacher's nature and yours are all identical.
If you know your nature and rest in it the samaya is being kept.
In other words just resting in your nature is keeping all the samayas you ever had.

“The path of the supreme yoga it is not the path of accomplished sages of the past. Whoever enters onto the path of the sages of the past will end up gripped by the sicknesses of the path - meditation, attachment, and exertion.”Thig le drug pa.

“Everything of the universe of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa arises as the enlightened energy of the one self-perfected Natural Presence. But these teachers still mistakenly teach that disciples should fabricate enlightenment by applying discipline, renunciation, interruption, purification and transformation”.

Thinking that the deity and the guru are different is a misunderstanding of empowerment, and can be argued to be a cause for not even receiving samaya.

Just throwing that out there.....

Absolutely.
I think this is probably the key to understanding a lot of the misconceptions about empowerment, samaya, and the purpose of deity yoga practices.

Kye ma!
The river of continuity is marked by impermanence.
Ceaseless flowing of appearance.
Beautiful and repulsive.
The dance of life and death is a display of the vast expanse.
With gratitude the watcher and the watched pass through the barrier of duality.

Deity's nature, your teacher's nature and yours are all identical.
If you know your nature and rest in it the samaya is being kept.
In other words just resting in your nature is keeping all the samayas you ever had.

This applies only to those who already have unwavering stability in uncontrived equipoise. As soon as you're in post-equipoise or engaging in day to day activities, knowing which actions of body speeh and mind are conducive to your practice and which harm it still very much applies.